Wise guys always carry paper advertising.
Even if you’re one of those authors who keeps a trunk full
of books for sale everywhere they go.
Even if your book is pocket or purse size. Even if your book is e-only, or is a blog or
other digital media. Even if your target
market is online.
Why? Because you never know what extra sales you could
generate by simply handing out a piece of paper with your book information on
it to that person you just met. Maybe
they’ll buy your book, love it, and recommend it to everyone they know. Maybe
they’re president of a book club. Maybe,
if you’re really lucky, they are head of the New York Times Book Review. You just never know.
While it is not a bad idea to keep a couple of copies of
your book in your car in case someone wants to buy one right now, most people you’ll talk to would rather get information
and then buy it online later. But you
can’t trust them to remember it later.
That’s where paper advertising becomes important.
Just imagine yourself in a social situation, or maybe even
just checking out at the grocery store.
Somehow the topic of your book comes up, and you mention you wrote about
that. If you don’t hand them a piece of
paper with that information on it immediately, they’ll move onto something else
and not think of it ever again. If they
do remember the conversation later and try to look up your book, they probably
won’t remember the title or your name (unless you’ve got one of those snappy
pen names I wrote about last time, like Lemony Snicket).
But if you gave that person a business card, they can pull
it out of their pocket, or purse, or lunch bag, or shoe, and have the
information right in front of them to look up.
Unless they forgot which pocket, or purse, or shoe it was
left in (or was it right?). Or it got
mixed up with their junk mail and thrown out.
Or accidentally left behind, or fell behind their cash register or
desk.
Which is why I prefer something nicer than a business
card. Nicer does not necessarily mean
expensive, and in fact it should be cheap like a business card since you’ll
want to hand out hundreds and thousands of them. But it should be something that whoever
you’re handing it to will want to hold onto and protect for later. Ideally, it will be something that the person
you give it to will want to use later, so they can be further reminded to buy
your book.
So what can you give them?
Of course you could hand out a business card or a quarter-page sheet,
but these risk being lost or thrown out.
My favorite and most successful handout is a bookmark (which is actually
a quarter page ad with the page being divided differently, with drastically
improved appearance and sales results).
Depending on your book, relevant tie-ins could work as well, such as
recipe cards for cookbooks.
Don’t feel limited by paper either. I have seen successful handouts made of wood
(for a woodworking book) and fabric (for a quilting book). You may want to consider slightly more
expensive handouts as well, if you can brainstorm something appropriate to your
book topic. Perhaps some artwork
reproduction from your book’s illustrations, or a sample of a craft or
less-perishable food from your book… the sky’s the limit. For more expensive handouts, I tend to
restrict handing them out to people who I feel have the highest likelihood of
buying but just need a little extra encouragement, but if you feel generous
enough to hand these out to everyone, go for it.
No matter what you are using for hand-out advertising, make
sure that it is clear, attractive, professional and contains all the important
information (book or blog name, your name, and where to buy it). You can include more information if it will
help you sell your book, but don’t overwhelm the customer with words – which is
a big marketing challenge for many writers!
If you don’t think that your graphic design skills are up to snuff,
there are lots of people out there who can help you with this at a reasonable
cost.
And once you have it printed and ready, hand it out like
party favors. Give something to everyone
you meet. Remember, the more people know
about your book, the more people can buy it.
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